Bernard Nightray
Duke Bernard Nightray is the leader of the Nightray Dukedom. He has no known contract as he could not contract with Raven making him the only Duke not to be able to do so as Cheryl, Rufus and Zai managed to contract with their respected house chains. History Bernard Nightray married long ago and managed to have five children, Ernest, Claude, Fred, Vanessa and Eliot Nightray. All together there were 8 in the Nightray family. That is until Vincent was spat out of the Abyss outside the Nightray Estate. Bernard then adopted Vincent into the Nightray Dukedom. Not long afterwards, Oz Vessalius was cast into the Abyss and so his Valet, Gilbert, was having trouble coping and often ran away on his own. One day he met Xerxes Break and the two made a deal that if Gilbert would offer himself to The Nightray Dukedom that Break would help rescue Oz. This lead to Gilbert being adopted by the Nightrays after leaving The Vessaliuses as a servant, thus reuniting Vincent with his brother after 100 years. In reality, it has been recently revealled that Gil was only adopted because Vincent told Bernard about how Gil's been connected to Raven for 100 years and could contract him, also stating that Vincent was only contracted to uncover the mysteries of the Tragedy as well. Bernard fronts an Orphanage in Sablier, The House of FIanna, where children effected by the Abyss end up when they lose their parents. One particular boy, who lost his parents to some chains, lead to the Duke discovering that Leo was the carrier of Glen's soul fragements. In the end Duke Nightray locked Leo up in the House of Fianna to use him as his "trump card" if necessary against the Baskervilles and Pandora. Though Claude and Ernest brought Elliot to the House of Fianna to get him his own Valet, and, much to Bernard's displeasure, Leo and Elliot connected with eachother and became one another's equal, meaning that Leo was leaving and that Bernard had lost his trump card. Bernard knew of Elliot's illegal contract with Humpty Dumpty, and after the Orphan John's body couldn't handle Humpty Dumpty, Humpty Dumpty migrated its power to the person who contracted with it next, Elliot. This pleased Bernard, who then further allowed his wife, Bernice, become bait for Isla Yura, who was dying to talk to Bernard, and when the time came, the two formed a partnership where Yura backed the research with his investments, thus making all Orphans contract with Humpty Dumpty. Bernard, as well as Fred, Ernest, Claude and Vanessa, were unable to contract with the family's chain, Raven, thus in his eyes bringing more shame to the family, as they were already known as the traitors who stood behind the Baskervilles during the Tragedy. So when Gilbert actually could form a contract with Raven years after the adoption, like Vincent said, Bernard was pleased, hoping that the family might earn some dignity from the event, that being the reason that Bernard would not budge on his decision to allow it after Claude argued strongly that Gilbert wasn't even a legitimate Nightray and shouldn't be allowed to do such a thing. The Head Hunter Bernard's family then started falling apart as that same afternoon, his oldest son, Fred, was found decapitated, by what witnesses described as a woman, The Queen of Hearts. Coincedentally, his adopted son, Vincent, had decapitated Fred with his Illegal Chain, Demios. The Duke's brother-in-law also fell victem to Demios not long afterward as well, Vincent's reasoning for the attack being to save Gil from being attacked by Fred and the Uncle first as they hated the adopted members of the family. Claude and Ernest Nightray were next to fall as they had planned to mimic the Head Hunter to kill Gilbert, Vincent and Leo to be rid of them. The two were then slaughtered by Eliot while under Humpty Dumpty's influence, then decapited by the chain. Duchess Nightray started losing her sanity after the loss of four of her family members, this is when Isla Yura offered her a place in his Religious Cult, which had a plan to plunge the country into the Abyss, which he told her would allow her to reunite with her family once again. In reality, Yura just used Duchess Nightray as an excuse to get closer to the four dukedoms. Cheshire's Dimension When Oz and Alice were thrown into a meeting of the Four Dukes by Eques after escaping Cheshire's dimension, Bernard concludes that the two had arrived to assassinate the Four Dukes and so he sent Pandora's soldiers to arrest the two while the dukes escaped. Sablier Bernard then later travelled to Sablier to visit the House of Fianna around the same time Oz, Alice and Gil arrived at Sablier, though this time he brought Eliot and Leo with him. Bernard later sent Zai Vessalius to retrieve Eliot and Leo after they followed Oz, ALice and Gil into The Pit, as Bernard's legs were not fit for the journey. Bernard was revealled by Vincent to be working with the Baskervilles, though he refuses to give up his Key to the Abyss. Bernard was also present at the meeting of the Four Dukes after Master Rytas, Marie and Gruda Glooner were killed by Vincent and Demios. Second Coming of Age Ceremony Bernard did not attend Oz's Second Coming of Age Ceremony, because of his closeness to Isla Yura and his Cult, this meant that the Duke already knew of the events that were to happen there and avoided it for his own safety, while his wife, daughter and youngest son went in his place. Ceremony Aftermath After Bernard got word of what happened at The Second Coming of Age ceremony and how his wife, Vanessa and Eliot had been killed, he fled to a safehouse in Revielle. Vincent met with Bernard three days later where the Duke demanded to be protected under the Baskervilles because surely Pandora would deciefer his actions of late. Vincent, reveals his true colours to Bernard, explaining how he killed Fred, The Uncle and destroyed the Second Seal, and how Elliot killed Claude and Ernest as well as his sister and mother. Vincent talks through all the things that Bernard did for himself and his families honour; standing by and letting Elliot contract with Humpty Dumpty, locking Leo away, only adopting Gil and Vincent to suit his personal needs, using his wife as bait to lure in the "venemous snake". For these reasons Vincent lables the Duke as truley dispicable and so he summons Deimos and decapitates Bernard's two body guards before decapitating Bernard himself.Bernard Nightray was the last member of the legitimate Nightray family to die, thus making all true Nightrays extinct.﻿ Appearence His appearence, as shown in Retrace Chapter XXI: Discord, Duke nightray dresses in rather traditional clothes and has long black hair and a long black beard, he also seems to be rather old. Chapter Appearences *﻿Retrace XXI - Discord *Retrace XLII - Stray *Retrace XLVI - Persona *Retrace XLVII - Unbirthday *Retrace LX - Empty Shell *Retrace LXI - Demios Quotes *"Who the Hell are you?" *"You are here in order to assassinate us, the Four Dukes, am I right ??!!" *"Why are you so angry Claude? You should be glad to know that Raven's Contractor has finally been found." Site Navigation Category:Nightray Family Category:Pandora members Category:Baskervilles Category:Deceased Category:Victems of The Head Hunter Category:Male Characters